Dark Days Challenge: Week 1

The Eco Geek is taking part in the 3rd Annual Dark Days of Winter Eat Local Challenge, Nov. 15 through March 31. This post is for Week 1.

Eating local once a week shouldn't be that hard.

All you need are a few key ingredients to make a simple meal, right?

But if you, like me, are getting all your ingredients from local grocery stores — and not your garden, pantry, root cellar, chicken coop or meat freezer — it's trickier.

Also, I must confess: I am not Julia Child. On my best day, I am not even Julie. I'm more comfortable cooking meals that come out of boxes than anything else, so this challenge is two-fold for me.

This week my cook-local plan was to use some goat meat I had in the freezer from a trip earlier this year to the University District Farmers Market, where I bought the meat for its sheer novelty.

However, when I went to defrost the goat, which I thought was from a Thurston County farm, I saw a label on the packaging that said, “Sandy, OR.”

Doh.

Oregon is not local by my eat-local definition of “Washington,” so I threw it back in the freezer.

I was starting to get nervous. I knew I could get local eggs, cheese, cream and milk at the Sno-Isle Food Co-op in Everett, so I could at least make scrambled eggs with cheese for dinner.

Then a coworker said I should try bacon from Hempler's, a Bellingham-area business that sells supposedly incredible meats at local grocery stores.

Easy! Everything's better with bacon.

I grabbed the only two packages left at the Marysville Haggen and felt triumphant. Bacon AND eggs!


Then I found Washington-grown potatoes and onions at Sno-Isle and decided I could make my mother's potato-bacon soup with milk and cream from Golden Glen Creamery of Skagit County. I also found honey, apples and red bell peppers from Washington at Sno-Isle.


When I arrived home on soup night, I was delighted to find my delivery from SPUD, including apples, onions, green cabbage and shallots, all from Washington farmers, plus fingerling potatoes and parsnips from Ralph's Greenhouse in Mount Vernon.


At Haggen and Sno-Isle, I also found quasi-local flour to thicken my soup from the Fairhaven Organic Flour Mill of Bellingham, which uses grain from “the West.”


Ta-da! Finally, my crash course in cooking local was starting to pay off.



Long story short: I made the soup and it was great. Full disclosure: Because I overheated it, it curdled. Rookie move!

However, I must say, it tasted phenomenal, very likely because of the luxurious, thick-cut, perfect bacon.

But about that bacon: When looked online for the story behind Hempler's, the company's Web site said, much to my dismay, that they use “naturally grown Oregon country beef.”

Does that mean they use Oregon pig, too? I just e-mailed Hempler's to ask.

It just goes to show: To really know where your food comes from, you might need to meet your farmer and pet the pigs: I am already making plans with friends to buy a quarter of beef from a local farmer for 2010. Pig might be next, depending on how much you have to buy.

This weekend, I'm heading to the U District Farmers Market, the best all-in-one source I know of for local food.

I'll be seeking out grass-fed beef stew meat and pastured bacon from Skagit River Ranch of Sedro Woolley, soup stock from Sea Breeze Farm on Vashon Island and numerous vegetables and herbs.

I'm thinking beef stew.

These are Dark Days, after all.

Quasi-local potato-bacon soup

2 pounds Washington potatoes
1 pound Hempler's thick-cut bacon
2 Washington onions, finely chopped
5 cups, plus ¼ cup milk from Golden Glen Creamery
¼ cup flour from Fairhaven Organic Flour Mill
1 teaspoon of white pepper
½ cup heavy cream from Golden Glen Creamery
Salt and pepper to taste
1 can cut green beans from your pantry (optional)

Peel and dice the potatoes. Boil potatoes until they are tender but can still hold their shape.

Cook the bacon on medium heat in a large skillet. Remove the bacon and all but 2 tablespoons of bacon fat from the pan. Cook the onions on medium-high heat in the skillet until soft and slightly brown.

Reduce the heat to medium and pour 2 cups of milk into the pan. Combine flour and ¼ cup of milk in a small bowl and mix into a slurry. Gradually add the slurry to the pan, stirring constantly. Simmer the mixture for about 10 minutes, making sure it doesn't boil.

Gradually add the remaining three cups of milk, white pepper, heavy cream and three-quarters of the cooked bacon. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Fold in the potatoes and heat through.

Serve topped with the remaining bacon. If you have canned cut green beans, you can add a can of those along with the potatoes.

Makes 6 meal-size portions.